Lindsey Boise Design

Will Smith and the Art of the Sprite Comic

Sprite comics are a style of graphic narrative where the designer re-purposes sprites from video games and recomposes them in order to tell a new story. The basic method of creation (sourcing elements, cutting, pasting, compositing, color correcting, effecting) is very similar  to what many Photoshop artists do with most of their time, but with the added twist of trying to tell a continued story.

Will has been strengthening his storytelling skills in the form of a sprite comic called Simple Pixel, writing and designing over 100 episodes so far. He uses a pencil and paper and Paint.Net for all the effects. I asked Will for a couple of sentences about the project, eliciting this response:

I like to think that Simple Pixel is a “wanna-be movie”. I put most of the work into the scripting and storyline, and the graphic design is sort of my way of making a “film” out of it. The idea that a tale can be expressed through visuals, be it comic or cinema, is very fascinating to me. And as long as I lack a video camera, comics have been a great way for me to show the stories I come up with.

While I have to admit that I have a hard time connecting with much of the story (it has Pokemon in it for example and i know nothing about those), I do enjoy his clever application of  various techniques (blur, focus, lighting and shadow, position, etc) to help him illustrate his story. I have included a selection of some of my favorite panels below.

The world needs growing designers, writers and storyboardists and I believe that if he chooses to keep improving his skills, he has potential to become a successful professional in the graphic arts.

I will be on the lookout for other young designers having fun and stretching their wings and I will post them here when I find them.